PuraOra! PRIDE OF ORANGE

After 12 eps I can tell you that if you’ve seen the poster you know what to expect, it isn’t really Slam Dunk on ice but it also never advertised itself as that. This is aesthetically a “CGDCT” anime which in my opinion isn’t the best match for a story about hockey but it might just be strange enough to work. If the idol part of the show puts you off, first of all don’t worry i understand it but please also understand that it isn’t a bad strategy. This show isn’t made for a tradicional overseas market and seeing the success of Uma Musumeyou can’t fault them for trying to appeal to a larger Japanese audience in a similar way and after 12 eps it only plays a small roll (for an idol show it sure has few and far in between “idol moments”) This anime was made in collaboration with the Nikko Ice bucks, people that actually know what their talking about help made this anime and it shows. The on ice scenes are legit the slap shots, snap shots, and even the goalie saves all look better than half the American hockey movies I’ve seen. As far as a hockey anime goes the hockey aspect looks legit, yeah Canadians will cry about losing in the opening minutes of ep 1 but hey when was the last time y’all won a Stanley cup? (jk love you Canadians, I’m Mexican so I can’t really talk shit lol). Throughout the 12 eps this show had all the classic hockey moments you could expect so I give it major props for that (they even had an off the penalty box scoring chance!) Yeah this isn’t the perfect hockey adaptation I might have wished for years ago but tbh I never expected to see a “hockey anime” so I’m stoked to get this and I hope this results in more attention for ice hockey in Japan and in the anime industry overall. Honestly having had realistic expectations for it I really enjoyed it. If like me you love hockey or want to know more about it and are open minded you might enjoy it too.

*Minor spoilers* I feel bad for Puraore. As the ultimate representative of the whole Canadian community and a pretty big defender of the main sport from the same country, I’m shocked to see this anime with a rating that low. As much as I like my CGDCT, it’s kind of a surprise to see it being that stable during the whole season. Never did it get over a seven, the least this kind of anime can get with how little it can work with. Jokes aside, I don’t particularly like Puraore because I’m Canadian myself, otherwise it would sounds stupid for other people to see an anime thatis only enjoyable for a Canadian audience, with some being Japanese as well. Yet, it would sounds even more stupid to consider myself as the ultimate representative of my homeland. By still going that way, people might think that I’m just overhyping a show that is not that good by looking at its rating. The reason I’m making this review mostly is to assure people get the same idea of what this anime is about. I do get the feeling the reason it might get bad reviews with overlow ratings is because some of the “groups” don't share the same judgement and comparaisons. Not in a way they shouldn’t get an opinion and instead all think the same way in terms of rating, but in terms of knowing the whole concept of this anime. Puraore is a Cute Girl Doing Cute Thing with some scenes with hockey in it. There. Simple as it is. MY perspective of what Puraore is about and probably what it should be to anyone before watching it. It’s neither a Shounen Sport, like Haikyuu or Kuroko no Basuke, nor an Idol, like Love Live or IDOLMASTER. Why am I mentioning that? Just in case people read the synopsis or judged the character design way too quickly and started watching it without thinking. And yet, they might see Puraore as the biggest bait/lie those fans get to ever experience. The first episode already shows us a match between Japan and Canada (ay!) with a lot of actions and fast movement, something that makes Shounen Sports fans shit in their pants. Not only that, right after the match, we see the main team we knew by looking at the poster doing some kind of victory dance after… Well, winning the game. By adding pop music in the background, a dance animated with not so bad CGI and of course the singing part, what a nice way to get many idol fans in here. This is where it might feel like a bait. Sport Shounen fans might want to see what makes hockey so popular and hype, maybe also knowing how it became the natural sport in Canada. Knowing about strategy, personalities, the good and the bads, so they could use their knowledge from this anime with a real team of players. Idol fans might be in need for more music with cute anime girls as singers. Both of what they want are ONLY available at the first episode and the two last episodes, but neither of what they actually want is going to be in this anime, because it’s not the main idea of what it actually is. Now, speaking of why I wanted to watch it: I don’t particularly like hockey myself. I’d even go by saying that I never really was into it. Sometimes I used to watch hockey when my parents cheered on the Montreal Canadiens out of the corner of my eye but that’s about it. Wasn’t caring about hockey cards either, like "What did you expect." Absolutely nothing could captivate my attention to force me into playing it. But Puraore is, from all I know by far, the only anime to ever come out mentioning hockey… with cute girls in it! In other words, I got baited by the cute girls. I wasn’t expecting much, I even joked with friends on how I could give it a 10 out of 10 if one of the girls got destroyed by being tackled to the wall. A monster I am and still is indeed. The more I watched it the more I believed less that it was a SP or an Idol. Thank god because I didn’t wanted to see the girls doing their things transformed into Jolynes Joestars from JoJo (Even tho she is a cool character) nor wanted them to sing with no other purpose than selling CDs to the hardcore fans. I got le CGDCT I’m usually watching when I want to pass the time. It doesn’t really have a story, only about girls wanting to form a team to play hockey after being suggested to do so. The team, while composed with basically the same character with one personality trait and one hairstyle of difference, is still pretty enjoyable to see. It doesn’t get annoying, nor boring, nor shittier. Little team progressing through time and learning little mechanics that aren’t that much explained as why they should play hockey that way and not that way. It’s a CGDCT as simple as it is! And I’m so confused as to why it is “average!” There’s a ton of them that doesn't have as much content as Puraore with ratings that are higher than that, which was at this moment I thought about my “Wrong Audience Theory.” This anime surely may be shit if you are not into this kind of anime. However, judging it as a CGDCT, it is pretty enjoyable! Even if it doesn’t stand up to many others, it still gives us the vibes sended to us. One of the biggest flaw I got it the absence of an announcement for a second season. Still likely to happen, because of the premise. If it happens, I think it will be better than the first season. Heck, the World Cup against Canada. What if they make references to NHL at this point. And with the knowledge they got to direct this anime, with the so realistic sound effects (When the stick hits the puck, IT DOES SOUND LIKE THE STICK IS HITTING A PUCK), this studio has a lot of ressource to evolve this into a bigger and more hype anime. But for now, we need to wait. So, don’t expect Puraore to be a full on anime about strategy and tension, or an anime with girls singing over and over again, for now. Take this first season as a little cup of tea while eating waffles with maple syrup. I’m not British enough to know if that combinaison is possible or not, but nothing is impossible. I surely am gonna watch the second season if it happens.

This anime was almost as difficult to watch as it was to find the 'write a review' button on this website. It's a sports anime, but there's barely any actual playing involved. I have no idea who the characters are or what makes them tick. They have no character development whatsoever, other than "yay power of friendship, we're having so much fun" with zero substance. At one point I thought this was going to turn into a 'ice hockey team also is idol group' affair, but even that doesn't really come to pass. There was a character who left early in the series and later came back, butI had entirely forgotten they even existed as they didn't add anything useful to the non-existing plot. Overall, the whole series feels like a set-up to sell their game, which subsequently failed shortly after launch. This about sums up the experience. It wasn't even terrible, it was just boring.